Lesson Plan: The Boy Who Fought Hitler

Essential Questions

• What happens when prejudice goes unchecked?
• How can individuals fight back when faced with unimaginable horrors?

Literature Connection

• Novel: I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis 
• Nonfiction: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the article’s title and subtitle (the text beneath the title). What do you know about Hitler and the Nazis? Answers will vary.
• Look at the map and read its caption. What is the map’s purpose? The purpose of the map is to show which areas of Europe were controlled by Nazi Germany in 1942, which were against Germany, and which were neutral. We can see that most of Europe was controlled by the Nazis.
• Look at the photo captioned “Warsaw Ghetto.” Read its caption. What’s happening in the photo? The photo shows Jewish people being ordered out of the Warsaw ghetto. They have their hands up and look scared.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (prejudice, political, synagogues, sabotaged, executed) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading 

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students that they will find text evidence in “The Boy Who Fought Hitler” that supports important ideas about who Hitler was and how teens like Ben Kamm fought against him.
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
• Point out the activity at the end of the story and tell students they will complete it after reading. Remind them to keep the Think About It! question at the bottom in mind as they read.
• Tell students that as they finish each section, they should think about how the text features on the page (e.g., photos, captions, and section headings) relate to what they’ve just read.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• Reread the first line of the article. Why do you think the author describes Ben Kamm as someone you might know? (author’s craft) The author probably wants readers to relate to Ben and realize that even though he lived in a different time and place, in many ways he was just like kids now. 
• Reread the section “Hateful Lies.” How did Hitler convince Germans and other Europeans to turn against the Jewish people around them? What happened as a result? (cause and effect) When Germany was struggling after World War I, Hitler falsely claimed that Jews were to blame for the country’s problems. As a result, people burned synagogues and destroyed Jewish-owned businesses. By the end of the war, Hitler’s Nazi Party had killed 6 million Jewish people. 
• Based on the section “Nazi Invasion,” what happened in 1940? How did this affect Ben and his family? (cause and effect) In 1940, all the Jewish people in Warsaw were forced to move into one tiny area of the city, known as the ghetto. Ben’s family lived in one small room. There was little food in the ghetto, and nobody was allowed to leave. 
• Reread “Jewish Fighters.” What does this section header refer to? (central idea) It refers to Jews who joined others to fight back against the Nazis. These fighters, called partisans, lived on bases hidden in forests. They took action to disrupt the Nazis’ fighting, like stealing weapons and sabotaging railroads. They also protected Jewish families. 
• What happened to Hitler and the Nazis when the war ended? What happened to Ben? (key details) Hitler took his own life. Many Nazis were executed for their crimes. Ben had lost his family, but he moved to America and rebuilt his life.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Ben said he considered himself lucky because he was alive and could tell the story of what he experienced during World War II. Why was telling the story important? (critical thinking) It can be hard to imagine what people went through in the Warsaw ghetto and what it took for the partisans to resist the powerful Nazis. By telling his story, Ben helped others understand what Jews experienced, which in turn helps people try to prevent it from happening again. 
• Some stories have more than one central idea. In this article, what is a central idea about what happened during World War II? What is a central idea about Ben and the partisans? (central idea) A central idea about World War II is that across Europe, Hitler and his Nazi Party made Jewish people the target of lies and hatred. In Warsaw, Jews were forced into a tiny area called a ghetto. A central idea about Ben and the partisans is that they bravely fought back against Hitler’s forces.

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Text Evidence activity. As a class, discuss students’ answers and the Think About It! question.
• Have students work independently to complete our Central Idea and Details Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing prompt: Think about the choices Ben Kamm made that helped him survive the war, help others, and live a happy life afterward. What lessons can people learn from Ben’s story? Write a paragraph explaining why Ben might be a good role model for someone who is going through a hard time.